Local Resident’s Number Hijacked to Contact Fellow North Alabama Residents

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A local consumer has called the BBB office to report receiving several text messages from “Mark Dawson” claiming to be with the “Texas Cyber Security Investigation”, a fabricated branch of the Texas State Police Department. The text messages are coming from 830-582-8782. When an employee of the BBB called the number to confirm the identity and reason for the text messages, a local North Alabama resident picked up the phone. The resident stated that she had received several calls from other consumers who had received the same type of text message. She believes her number has been hijacked by the person claiming to be Mark Dawson.

Upon further research, there have been other reports of consumers receiving similar text messages claiming to be from Mark Dawson with Texas Cyber Security Investigation. The text messages stated that the scammer was from the sheriff’s department in Texas and that if the consumer did not respond in two days they would be arrested.

If you receive a scam text message like this, do not respond to the text message or call the number it came from. The police and government will not call or text you to get in contact – they will send a certified letter in the mail. Before deleting the message, forward the text to 7726 to alert your phone carrier to block future texts from that number.